Bucks County group continues to offer help in heart of opioid crisis

Marion Callahan @marioncallahan

Thursday

Jun 14, 2018 at 3:00 PMJun 14, 2018 at 4:57 PM

Last month, Philadelphia cleared two major homeless encampments that drug users called home in Kensington. Still, hundreds of people struggling with addiction remain, and a Bucks County outreach group continues to offer help.

The city of Philadelphia did what it promised. Sort of.

It cleared two massive homeless encampments on Kensington Avenue and Tulip Street, once home to hundreds of drug users living in squalor beneath the now-hollowed out underpasses. But last month’s sweep, part of a citywide pilot program to combat the opioid crisis, didn’t rid the nearby open-air drug market of dealers or clear out the crowds of users living on neighboring streets.

“They just pushed them from one street to another,” said Marti Hottenstein, who wasn’t surprised to still see dozens of users huddled under makeshift cardboard shelters and tents during a recent visit.

Upon learning of the news of the recent “encampment clean ups,” Hottenstein and a group of volunteers from Bucks County's How to Save a Life returned to the heart of their outreach efforts, “following the need that still exists,” she said.

The two remaining encampments at Emerald Street and Frankford Avenue were bustling with activity Monday morning. Hottenstein, Valerie Fiore and Diane Reilly passed out pre-made packages of food and toiletries and offered assistance for treatment to the homeless crowds milling around the waterlogged streets strewn with trash, needles and soggy blankets.

Hottenstein and other members of the Warminster-based group, many of whom lost children to drug overdoses, have no plans to scale back on efforts to feed the homeless and find treatment for those who ask.

May’s encampment sweep, which cleared out half of the area’s camps, was part of a city pilot program to confront the city’s opioid epidemic, which claimed hundreds of lives last year.

After officials warned the homeless population with flyers and city outreach workers, Philadelphia began removing makeshift homes on Tulip Street and Kensington Avenue and opened 90 more beds at local shelters for those displaced. After city workers came in, residents packed up their belongings, stuffing some in shopping carts and backpacks. Sanitation workers tossed mattresses, tents and other debris into trucks and used power washers to clean the rest.

“We brought services directly to those living in the encampments and offered individuals immediate access to treatment,” city officials said in a statement from the mayor’s office. “We will continue to provide outreach services in the area in hopes of connecting those who left the encampments with housing and treatment services.”

The city, according to the statement, has not yet determined how to proceed with the two other encampment sites in Kensington and additional funds would be needed to “to serve the other two sites.”

The city reported that 120 displaced people sought shelters, with about half of them entering treatment. The city acknowledged it couldn’t house all who were moved. Many didn’t want to go.

Still, those who are left homeless need some kind of comfort, said Reilly, of Upper Dublin, who lost her son to a fentanyl overdose last May. Spreading kindness and offers for help brings her peace. “I want to help,” she said, adding that watching people nearly pass out in public from their drug use was hard to stomach. “These are someone’s children, and when they are homeless, they are desperate. It’s hard to believe they could live that way.”

Joseph Scheidhauer, who volunteers at The Last Stop outreach and 12-step program on Somerset Street, offers food and help for recovery daily and he said “not everybody wants to be helped.”

He said many displaced residents from under the bridges did seek shelter and help, but not enough of them, and he saw many homeless campers pitching tents in other locations.

“We see people overdosing and dying every day; this is a war zone out here,” said Scheidhauer, passing through one of the remaining encampments where dealers made exchanges in plain sight and several people openly “nodded out,” a term used to describe the leaning motion that people make after shooting heroin. “Shelters and jail isn’t the answer. We need resources.”

It will take more people caring to get those resources, he said.

Scheidhauer found sobriety with help from Eddie Zampitella, owner of The Last Stop. Zampitella said the key to reducing the deaths is to get the drugs off the streets, get more neighbors involved in reporting the dealers and have help available “as soon as someone is ready.”

“Right now, you have people going into hospitals saying they want to kill themselves so they’ll get help,” said Zampitella, who pointed across the street to a porch and a neighboring alleyway where two had people overdosed and died.

From The Last Stop, Hottenstein’s group meets twice monthly to distribute food, but also to spread the message that hope and help is within reach.

Turning to Hottenstein, Zampitella said, “She’s a blessing. We need more people to put effort and motivation into helping these people.”

That day, Hottenstein, of Warminster, and Fiore, of Horsham, met a young man on the street who wanted to talk and see his mother. The man, in his 20s, might not have sought treatment, but he was able to use Fiore's phone, call home and arrange transportation to see his family.

Hottenstein and other members of her group know that a simple sandwich can turn into a conversation that could make a connection and save someone’s life. Still, the lack of police presence and government outreach is frustrating, Hottenstein said.

“Where is our government? Why are they allowing this?” said Hottenstein, who has been offering help for those suffering from addiction illnesses for 12 years. “The truth is, these are our people and we really need to help them. I’m going to continue to fight for them.”

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